Demographic drop-off

your business completely, with no promise that it’s going to pan out, just to keep your shop open a few more years?

As Dennis Petimezas, owner of Watchmakers Diamonds and Jewelry in Johnstown, Pa., put it, “If you’re 75 to 80 percent of where you need to be to successfully retire, why take the risk? ... Can a mature independent afford to make a mistake at this point and have to work even longer to then try and correct it?”

I think it’s more logical to just take the money you can get out of your business now and retire. Or, if you still need the money and/or just aren’t ready to spend all day on the golf course, do something still jewelry-oriented but perhaps a little (or a lot) less stressful than being a small business owner.

Another factor contributing to the shrinking industry is the decreasing number of young people stepping into the family business.

There are some who say the younger generation is not willing to put in the time it takes to run a small retail store, but I don’t agree with that blanket statement any more that I agree with the assertion that older jewelers are retiring simply because they can’t figure out Facebook.

The majority of companies today are running lean, with one employee shouldering a workload that once was handled by two or even three people. Staff are working long hours no matter what the profession, made longer by the fact that people are on email nearly 24 hours a day.

I don’t think it’s a matter of young people not being willing to work; I think, in many cases, it’s just a matter of them picking different career paths, working for companies that are much younger and, by extension, seem hipper and cooler.

Jewelry isn’t the only industry with this problem.

Over the summer, Fortune magazine did a video interview with GE CEO Jeff Immelt.

Immelt told the interviewer that luring young talent away from Facebook, Google and startups and to GE is one of the issues that keeps him up at night, and this concern is evident in GE’s current advertising campaign featuring Owen, a new, young programmer/developer at GE.

Have you seen these commercials? There are a couple different versions (one of which you can view below) but the message in each is clear: Young people, come work at GE. The work you’ll be doing here will transform the way the world works.



Jewelry does not have its own Owen, but that does not mean the industry’s organizations are ignorant of the need to attract young talent.

The Diamond Council of America, MJSA, the Independent Jewelers Organization, the American Gem Society, the International Colored Gemstone Association and U.S. Antique Shows, which just crowned its first “Antique Young Gun” this past weekend, all are working to pique the next generation’s interest in jewelry. Our associate editor, Brecken, profiled their efforts in our last digital magazine.

It’s not a BBDO-created national advertising campaign on the same scale as GE’s Owen. But, it is a step in the right direction, and it addresses one of the problems impacting the incredible shrinking jewelry industry.